[Arcade Event] IGS promotes "MuziBox Arcade Tournament" in Taiwan

After several golden eras for the We Dancing Online Arcade Tournament, International Games System Corporation (IGS) promoted a brand new event named "MuziBox Arcade Tournament" in Taiwan. It was debuted last Sunday from Sanchung, New Taipei.

Different with former "WeDo Arcade Tournament", participants should decide songs in a store qualifier by drawing an random song card presented by an event host. Official battle song list announced in a qualifier will be varied by month and update versions.

2013 Taipei Game Show to vary first impressions in major side events

2013 Taipei Game Show by Taipei Computer Association, scheduled from January 31 to February 4 next year, made its official public promotion during Bahamut Gamer's Community 16-Years' Anniversary in Taiwan last week. The official also announced its new show slogan "Gaming innovates Dreams" in recent to encourage game player and industrial people interacting with Taiwan's gaming industry positively.

The Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra performed in the ACG Recital of the 2012 Taoyuan ACG Carnival. (Photo in Reference)

Since "2013 Taipei Game Show Microfilm Competition" for academical units was announced during the 2012 4C Digital Design Awards by Industrial Bureau of Ministry of Economic Affairs, and "Game Star Online Voting" for local residents in Taiwan was in progress, the Taipei Computer Association announced a major game recital for this event named "2013 Taipei Game Show: Video Games Concert" on February 2nd, 2013 in the Auditorium of the Sun-Yat Sen Memorial Hall in Taipei, Taiwan. This major event will introduce game music from several classical game series by Taiwan Film Orchestra and Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra.

[2013 Taipei Game Show Basic Information]

• Organizer: Taipei Computer Association
• Venue: Taipei World Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall
• Date and Time: January 31^st - February 4^th, 2013
• Official Site

Crossovers from traditions and moderns seen in Bahamut's 16-years' Anniversary

Bahamut Gamer's Community, as known as the most largest gaming community in Taiwan, celebrates its 16-years' anniversary last week in Taiwan by convening games from traditions to moderns with varied showcasing styles.

As 2012 GTI Asia Taipei Expo's alternations, this community-based event still attracted players although its showcasing scale varied on gaming series. In music game section, Sega's "maimai" is the only arcade game showcasing in this event.

Rather than experiencing popular game series, some communities chose to showcase some rare peripherals as of considering visitors' populations. In "Taiko no Tatsujin" section, a classic-styled arcade-simulated LCD display was introduced. According to its collector, this micro LCD display is designed for collection to salute the initial arcade machine of the first version of "Taiko no Tatsujin" by Namco Bandai.

Classic-styled "Taiko no Tatsujin" micro LCD display.

Not only experience area, some classic basses and guitars were showcased in "Xbox360 Rocksmith" area.

Culture in a showcase: A creative gaming player drew different Miku Hatsune's head to bless the showcase in a "Great Luck" condition.

Cultural & creative industry in Taiwan: Bang Bu Bu to vary a new competition in convenience store marketing in Taiwan

New competition, New milestone.

Khan Entertainment, a senior company in cultural and creative industry in Taiwan, officially announced that a new convenience store marketing strategy will be made and varied as their best hit puppet drama series "Bang Bu Bu Puppet Drama" in Taiwan on road in their new strategic partner FamilyMart Taiwan next Wednesday (December 5th) in Taipei Time (GMT+8).

As of convenience store marketing in cultural and creative industry in recent years in Taiwan, estimate four main puppet drama series were on road in Taiwan's convenience stores since "Pili Prestige: Legend of the Dragon Blade" by Pili International was promoted to FamilyMart in September 2009.

2012 Konami Arcade Championship: Glancing arcade cultures in Taiwan

The Asian Final of the 2012 Konami Arcade Championship initialed in Taiwan.

2012 Konami Arcade Championship, a major annual arcade event by Konami Asia, started its Grand Finals for all music game divisions today until this Sunday in Taipei Time (GMT+8). Different from recent years, Konami Asia chose Taipei, Taiwan as its location of Asian Final based on players' performances in some past years and arcade event maturities in Taiwan including "REFLEC BEAT Taiwan Grand Prix" by Saint-Fun, "Jubeat Taiwan Championship" by Sume Corporation.

"REFLEC BEAT Taiwan Grand Prix", one of a famous arcade music game event in Taiwan. (Reference Photo in Summer 2012)

The alternation of generations for arcade music games in Taiwan varied evidently especially from several promotional events, trade shows, and music and entertainment industry in Eastern Asia. To construct bright image of arcade music games to the public, some local agencies in Taiwan also held several promotional events to motivate the public especially light players interacting with game by enjoying music rhythms and correctly acknowledging trends of popular music.

Music, game, and multimedia artworks gathered at the 2012 Taipei Digital Art Festival

Digital content industry shining in Taiwan! Gathering essentials of digital content industry in Asia, Europe, and Taiwan, The 7th 2012 Taipei Digital Art Festival showcases variations from gaming, music,  to multimedia applications and achievements of digital content industry in Taiwan.

This event is themed to "Artificial Nature" as of variations and realms from actual to virtual crossed into the digital content industry including gaming, music, entertainment, multimedia, and art.

The artwork "Play Your Dream" encourages the visitor finding the secret of variations in a crystal bottle set.

Thinking differences from music and entertainment. ION Audio showcases several popular product lines for iOS solutions including "iCade" (with its mobile version), iDJ 2Go, and ION Jukebox.

Popular ION products for iOS users in the 2012 Taipei Digital Arts Festival.

In the corridor of "The Art of Video Games", popular game series, classic gaming consoles, and recent hit games witnessed the greatest moment of gaming industry in the world. Several popular game series are also showcased in this special corridor including "Three Kingdom's Series" by Koei Tecmo, "Tekken" and "Taiko no Tatsujin" series by Bandai Namco. Besides of popular games, several classic gaming consoles and magazines are also showcased there.

Classic games and popular portable gaming console "PlayStation Portable".

2012 Digital Art Festival Taipei - General Information

• Organizer: Taipei City Government
• Operator: Cultural Bureau of Taipei City Government, Digital Art Foundation (R.O.C)
• Curator: Digital Art Center, Taipei
• Venue: Song-shan Cultural and Creative Park
• Date and Time: November 16^th to 25^th, 2012.
• Official Website: http://digitalartfestival.tw/daf12/

See More at.....

• Opening Reception (Facebook / Google+)
• Show Highlights (Facebook / Google+)

Academical units showcases creative prototypes at the 2012 Taiwan 4C Digital Design Awards

To encourage the public and academical units interact with digital content industry, the Industrial Development Bureau of Ministry of Economic Affairs (R.O.C) held "4C Digital Design Awards" for students to showcase their creative ideas on ACG prototypes.

'The "4C Digital Design Awards", one of the "Digital Content Awards" by Ministry of Economic Affairs, exclusively made for the creative workers and academical units, has been successfully held more than a decade since 2002 and in Taiwan. This annual event also build its notability on building an interactive platform between the industry, academical units, and the public.

'I'm glad that the public and more and more academical units submitted creative works close to international-standard performances. Although all the participated entities are prototypes, I hope all the participants can improve your creations whether you get your ideal awards or not,' commented by Jong-chin Shen, Director General of the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB).

The organizer derived six divisions in this event including Animation Division, Animation Manuscript Division, PC Game Division, Mobile Game Division, Game Proposal Division, and Creative Application Division. It attracted more than one thousand people submitting 432 entities. Estimate 117 entities were enrolled into the final decision.

About 42 entities are awarded by the officials, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology is awarded with "Best Teamwork Award" and "Best Team Performance Award" by submitting the most quantity of entities and winning the most quantity of awards.

2012 Shin-Kong Songwriting Contest recap: Dreaming the positive future with creativity

"Shin-Kong Songwriting Contest", an indie music contest by Shin-Kong Group in Taiwan, celebrated its decade last month in Taipei, Taiwan. It attracted 69 entries to join this competition, about 20 units were nominated to the Grand Final.

To encourage positive outlook in the public, the organizer themed its contest with "dream" and "future" this year.

The Girl's Mood Band styled Taiwanese-POP performance.

GUTS Band, a powerful and potential indie band in Taiwan.

According to the officials, this event was formerly focused on band teamwork, after re-designations, the organizer decided to aim its focus on creative songwriting. Therefore, Shin-Kong Group changed formations on music contests with songwriting contest since 2011.

For more information

• Event Highlights at Google+ Pages
• Video Highlights at YouTube

"Touch of the Light" the film OST released, Yu-Hsiang Huang inspires supporters' hearts with his performances

"Touch of the Light", an undisputed inspirational movie in Taiwan described about a real story of a blind pianist named "Yu-Hsiang Huang" pursuing his music dream in his blind but not disabled life, released its original soundtrack in recent officially. After its release, the production team held an outdoor thanksgiving recital to favor movie supporters and invoke a spirit of blind but not disabled in the public.

As of the production team, this movie was not only awarded and recommended in several events including Busan International Film Festival and Taipei Film Festival but also evaluated as the best positive inspirational movie without any negative commentaries in the public.

"I hope my story can be spread to anywhere in the world because I have positive aspects to overcome any difficulties when I performed music with my favorite piano in the public," as Yu-Hsiang Huang, main actor of the movie "Touch of the Light", mentioned during this event.

Special: Culture-creative industry shamed in Taipei? A historical fountain damaged in Taipei

[Breaking Current Event]

As the Department of Information and Tourism of Taipei City Government promoted "Taipei, Always More Delights!" tourism project, a Facebook user revealed a photo evidently witnessed that several deliberated manuscripts damaged a historical fountain in the 228 Memorial Peace Park in Taipei, Taiwan.

This incident echoed the public discussed on several social networks, but most people considered this behavior as a great vandalism because it hurt not only the first positive impression of the Taipei City but also hearts of victims' family from the 228 incident in Taiwan.

Although the officials didn't handle on this vandalism in the presence, but the culture-creative industry is firmly shamed in Taipei City.

2012 ICCIE Taiwan: National and traditional music cultures in a glance

"An exposition showcased not only just images from several notable and potential brands but also varied cultures from music to traditional art performances such as puppet drama brands, that's why the TICCIE should be an representative brand of the culture-creative industry in Taiwan." 

-- Lawrence Chang, Chairman of General Chamber of Commerce.

Don't think the TICCIE (Taiwan International Culture and Creative Industry Exposition) is only just an exposition to showcase creative products and services, when finding some interesting performances, you will be able to know about the spirits from several indie cultures such as traditional music, performing arts.

Different from the pasts, some music labels in the 2012 TICCIE were mostly noted as some newbies are awarded in the 23th Golden Melody Awards.

"Physical albums form awarded singers were frequently asked. Because of positive factors from the Golden Melody Awards, some visitors will consider buying (or collecting) albums from award-winning performers. Several rare or varied music sects or cultures in Taiwan can be highly valued in addition," according to some participants in the 2012 TICCIE.

As of positive factors from the 23th Golden Melody Awards, the traditional music culture in Taiwan is valued again in the public.

In another way, some of governmental and academical units marketed their brands with current event topics or representative activities in the 2012 TICCIE. For example, to echo the awareness of environment issue, not only several participated units used eco-friendly materials to construct their booth or pavilion, but also some flags related to citizen movements were displayed during this event.

Continued with recently-held "2012 Eslite Rooftop Music Festival", a local participant showcased anti-nuke citizen movement flag for awareness to the public.

The Chiayi City Government marketed the 2012 Chiayi International Band Festival in the 2012 TICCIE.

2012 ICCIE Taiwan: Discover the Centenary of Puppet Drama in Taiwan

"Thinking Puppet Drama, Thinking Taiwan."

The culture of "puppet drama" has a historical track from the basis of traditional drama to the extension of creative works including audio clips and albums, visual works, and peripheral products about a centenary in Taiwan.

To promote the traditional culture of puppet drama in Taiwan, "Centenary Pavilion of Puppet Drama in Taiwan" is planned by the Ministry of Culture to showcase developments and variations of puppet drama in Taiwan during the 2012 Taiwan International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo in the Taipei World Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall.

This pavilions will display theme topics including characteristics of several fictional characters in different drama series, variations and evolution of music works, and common types of puppet dramas in Taiwan.

Information for The 2012 Taiwan International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo

• Organizer: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of China, Taiwan.
• Undertaker: General Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of China, Taiwan.
• Date and Time:
• Oct. 18 ~ Oct. 20: 10am to 6pm
• Oct. 18 10am to 12pm for Trade Visitors Only
• Oct.21: 10am to 4pm
• Venue: Taipei World Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall 1F
• Official Site: http://iccie.tw/

Regulation disputes on area registration exposed in the 2012 Konami Asia Championship

"2012 Konami Asia Championship", a major arcade tournament by Konami, exposed a major dispute on regulations for area registrations in recent.

According to the official announcement below (in picture), this announcement evidently exposed the lack of regulations on area filtering when registering.

According to the official sites from Japanese version and English version, the organizer just mentioned about registration times. Except for Bemani Masters, "cross-area registration prohibited" seemed not to be noted at all the game divisions' introduction pages by the officials. As of this announcement released after some division qualifiers started about a week, the "2012 Konami Asia Championship" seemed to be criticized and disputed from the public and several participants.

The Asian Finals for the 2012 Konami Asia Championship is scheduled to be held on Nov. 24 to 25 at Tom's World Jin Wan Nien Store in Taipei, Taiwan.

The power of local ACG cultures showcased at the 2012 New Taipei ACG Festival

Gathering mixed indie cultures from animation, music, game, comic, digital content, and creative vehicle media, the "2012 New Taipei ACG Festival", one of the "2012 New Taipei City Summer Arts Festival", is officially started from August 18, 2012 in the 435 Art Zone in Banciao, New Taipei.

To showcase the power of digital content and ACG industries by local companies in Taiwan, not only several MIT animation works including "Katz Fun" and "Yameme" showcased in this event, the organizer also invites experts from technology, culture, and gaming industries setting a pavilion to make the public interactive with the origins of ACG industry and its prototypes.

After the key events in the opening week, the 2012 New Taipei ACG Festival is scheduled to be showcased until September 9th, 2012.

[Information Background]

• An event for ACG from the 2012 New Taipei Summer Arts Festival
• Date and Time: August 18 to September 9, 2012. (except on September 3)
• Venue: 435 Art Zone (Banciao, New Taipei)
• Key events in the Opening Week (August 18 & 19):
• ACG Style Car Exposition (ACG Itasha Exhibition)
• ACG Cosplay Party
• Live Band Performances
• ACG Local Consuming Market
• Related events during the showdays:
• Outdoor Figure Park
• ACG Theme Exposition
• ACG Theater

2012 Taoyuan ACG Carnival: Live ACG Orchestra performs classic music with mixed styles

Last Saturday on August 11, the Live ACG Orchestra of 2012 Taotuan ACG Carnival was taken place at the Taoyuan County Performing Arts Center in Taoyuan County, Taiwan. Kaoru Wada, a famous ACG musician from Japan, was invited to conduct this orchestra with performances by the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra.

To showcase mixed cultures from this ACG orchestra, the organizer arranged special performances with Chinese traditional instruments by local musicians in this orchestra.

Although a bad weather shaded in Taoyuan, this orchestra still attracted about 400 people last Saturday night.

"I'm surprised that it rained suddenly in the performance. I'm glad to thank several ACG and music fans supporting this major event although it undergoes a bad weather during the event. I'm looking forward to hope ACG and music fans can still support related events similar with this when I visit Taiwan next time."

Traditional cultures promoted at the 2012 Taiwan Original Music Awards

The 2012 Taiwan Original Music Awards in Taipei, Taiwan. (Credit: Ministry of Culture, R.O.C)

To promote indie music cultures from the traditional language in Taiwan, "2012 Taiwan Original Music Awards", co-organized by the Ministry of Culture, Hakka Affairs Council, and Council of Indigenous Peoples, showcased the final achievements in Taipei, Taiwan on August 11.

This major event has three divisions by different languages including Min-nan, Hakka, and Taiwanese Aboriginal Language. This event performed the spirits of originality, creativity, successions, and transcends for the music of traditional languages in Taiwan.

According to the organizer, about 253 entries are estimated to join this tournament, the top tens in three divisions are eligible to make the final performance in the award ceremony of the 2012 Taiwan Original Music Awards.

After the Final Stage Event, awarded winners in the 2012 Taiwan Original Music Awards will be invited to make their own performances in a special concert scheduled on September 22 in the Xinyi New Life Square in Taipei, Taiwan, all the champions will have opportunities to make their own memorial music videos.

Digital content industry in Taiwan promoted at the 2012 Digital Taipei

To promote the digital content industry in Taiwan, Industrial Development Bureau and Digital Content Industry Promotion Office of the Ministry of the Economic Affairs hold a major summit event with forum, seminars, expositions, and biz-matching events named "Digital Taipei" in Taiwan on July 16th and 17th, 2012 in the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center.

There are four major parts including "international game masters", "games in cross-strait area", "business opportunity", and "digital content application" in the forum. To echo the summit theme of the "Future PLAY - Plenty, Link, Amazing, Young", the organizer arranged forum topics from popular web games to mobile market trends.

Besides of forums and biz-matching events, the organizer showcased industrial achievements in Taiwan with varied pavilions including "Taiwan Animation Library", general showcases of local and indie animation products, "Digital Content Award", R&D achievements from software to digital content industries, and "Summer Playground", guidelines of the new game-ratings in Taiwan.

Themed Pavilions to introduce digital content industry in Taiwan: Taiwan Animation Library (left) and Summer Playground (right).

Local specialists and mixed cultures gathered in the 2012 Taoyuan International ACG Carnival

Thinking complexity, the cultures would be different. To promote local and international ACG cultures from Taoyuan County to the other places, the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Taoyuan County Government initiated first-ever "2012 Taoyuan International ACG Carnival" from July 13th to August 19th in the Taoyuan County Performing Arts Center.

This major event included microcosms and specialists of ACG culture from Taiwan to the other places. Lots of public intern workshops and seminars about the ACG industry are scheduled to be held during the showdays.

To increase the international opportunity on international exchanges, several topic events are scheduled next month including ACG orchestra live performance by Kaoru Wada and Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra, anime audio live performance by Sho Hayami, ACG cosplay carnival, and creative ACG market.

For More

• Opening Highlights
• Static Exposition Highlights (update in random)
• Highlights of VOCALOID artworks

2012 Golden Music Forum: Industrial executive talks about relations between game and music

"2012 Golden Music Forum", part of the 2012 Golden Music Exposition, a professional exposition for achievements of the music industry and its cross-fields in Taiwan, started varied topics from music to the other related or extended ones within a four-day event. In the second day of the 2012 Golden Music Forum last Sunday (June 17th), industrial executives talked about relations between game and music with the topic "Applications of music in games".

"Before the copyright issue is not mentioned and valued by several game developers, some of them (companies) chose several well-known canned musics to be materials of audio and clip enhancements when arranging musics or a simple clip to a game. However, there is still a great copyright issue on 'Canned Musics', if someone still uses them, they may not afford financial losses when they confronted lawsuits from original (music or audio) authors. As though, a specified department of music and audio production in a game company will be a key factor to show the value of 'original music' in a company (or its game).

"Music is undoubtedly a great element to effect on several factors including enterprise culture, design and image of a brand in a company or a game. For example, 'Miku Hatsune', an virtual idol from Japan, stands for not only a boom of subcultures but also productions and extensions on gaming, music, and performance art like cosplay and the other related events."

"Miku Hatsune" made great impacts on several extensions from music and games to subcultures. (Archived photo from the "2012 Taiwan Miku Hatsune Utilization Anniversary Tournament".)

The latest "Project Diva" work on PlayStation Vita named to "F"

Since "Project Mirai" on Nintendo 3DS was released about a season ago, Sega was still positively developing a new work on PlayStation Vita. According to the official Japanese blog "Weekly Diva Station", the latest work of the "Miku Hatsune: Project Diva" on PlayStation Vita will be named as "Miku Hatsune: Project Diva F".

Same with the "Project Mirai", the augmented reality interactive system will be featured in this work, users may use bundled AR card to do several customized interactions when gaming. As the "Project Diva F" is the initial version on PlayStation Vita, Sony and Sega will jointly feature a "Console Bundle" in the Limited Edition when shipping.

More Information

• Official Information: Game Cover and Console Bundle (Japanese)
• SGCafe: Hatsune Miku Project Diva F demos to appear in 740 stores around Japan; game package shots

2012 REFLEC BEAT Taiwan Summer League ready to start

After the golden era of "REFLEC BEAT Taiwan Grand Prix", another major event named "REFLEC BEAT Taiwan Summer League" prepared to welcome new challenger. Before this, the warm-up friendship made a friendship debut to evaluate popularity and fevers of the REFLEC BEAT in Taiwan.

Although the arcade music game in Taiwan changed vary, participants still battled high-level matches as well.

According to Kugayama Tech Co., Ltd., the opening match of the "REFLEC BEAT Taiwan Summer League" will be scheduled when all the possible determinants are considered and prepared.

Taiko no Tatsujin Arcade named as the official game in the 2012 New Taipei Music and Dance Festival in Taiwan

Taiko no Tatsujin is designated as the official game for the "Drum Gaming Master Tournament" in the 2012 New Taipei Music and Dance Festival. (Picture for reference only.)

Recently in Taiwan, to celebrate administration upgrades from Taipei County to New Taipei City, the Cultural Bureau of New Taipei City decided to make a major event with drum-based theme named "2012 New Taipei Music and Dance Festival".

According to the organizer, there are two main tournaments during this event. One is "Golden Drum Master Competition" (in Chinese: 金鼓王爭霸賽) for instrument players, and the other one is "Drum Gaming Master Tournament" (in Chinese: 電玩鼓林盟主爭霸賽) for music game players.

Although "Taiko no Tatsujin AC" by Namco is designated as the official game of the "Drum Gaming Master Tournament" during this major event, but the organizer just released group divisions and qualifier areas instead of gaming versions.

Online registrations for the "Drum Gaming Master Tournament" will be started on June 1st, 2012. Qualifiers of this event will be scheduled every weekend from June 23rd to July 8th, and the Final will be scheduled on July 21st to 22nd in the New Taipei City Plaza near the New Taipei City Hall.

2012 GTI Asia Taipei Expo: New music games, new bright impression

Last week in the Taipei World Trade Center, the 2012 GTI Asia Taipei Expo (GTI Taipei), the most famous arcade-oriented gaming trade show in Asia and Taiwan, showcased several new line-ups especially music games by several companies including Sega, Konami, IGS, and Injoy.

New line-ups in a glance: Gaming with just simple intuitions, complex gaming techniques may not required

After the golden past of Miku Hatsune, We Dancing Online, REFLEC BEAT last year, there is a great variation on arcade music games during the 2012 GTI Taipei. Besides of new events from IGS and Konami, "MaiMai" by Sega and "Love Touch" by Injoy (in picture) were respectively showcased to show visitors.

Some new line-ups are designed for light players who just likes to enjoy music or multimedia visual than pursuit advanced gaming techniques (e.g. "Love Touch" and "MuziBox"). But after somatosensory feature is considered by several developers, some games may need advanced gaming techniques if a player wants to be familiar with new gaming systems (e.g. "Sound Voltex Booth" and "Dance Evolution" by Konami and "MaiMai").

IGS vs Konami: Interactive event as the best practice for positive impressions of music games and arcade game industry in Taiwan

If a golden era is over, the best idea to maintain gaming popularity and showcase positive impression is to hold interactive events. In this alternative battle of the 2012 GTI Taipei, IGS and Konami respectively held key events when promoting their own new games.

Succeeded to We Dancing Online Arcade Edition (WeDo Arcade), IGS introduced their new product "MuziBox". To stabilize gaming popularity from WeDo Arcade, IGS and Saint-Fun jointly provided several memorial WeDo Arcade Tournament T-Shirts and IGS Super Collection Original Soundtrack during lucky draw events for players.

To last upsurges from recently-ended 2011 REFLEC BEAT Taiwan Grand Prix, Yoshitaka Nishimura (DJ YOSHITAKA), music composer and director of Konami BEMANI Series, was invited by Sume Corporation (agent of Konami in Taiwan) to interact with Bemani players. During the showdays, DJ YOSHITAKA demonstrated new games including "Sound Voltex Booth" and "Dance Evolution" to players and described variations and differences from past works.

Booth experience event by IGS and Saint-Fun (agent of IGS).

DJ YOSHITAKA (center) introduced "Sound Voltex Booth" and "Dance Evolution" to Bemani players.

Generally in new music games at the 2012 GTI Taipei, the first impression of music game has to be changed because of variations on functionality and different gaming-style orientations.

2011 RBTWGP Final Series: "Zero Hour" blazes amazing results

After the season tournament in Spring and Summer last year, the "2011 REFLEC Taiwan Grand Prix" (2011 RBTWGP) brought out the "Zero Hour" last Saturday assembling athletes including qualified athletes from Final Series and the top three athletes from Spring and Summer Series in Taipei, Taiwan. Thirty-two athletes were split into two divisions for the final top four eliminations.

Play's World Tianmu Flagship Store, the official tournament sponsor in the Grand Final, made a social network campaign during the tournament for participants who owns mobile devices to interact with Facebook Map.

Although the whole series of 2011 RBTWGP underwent a major upgrade on gaming system and songs, participants still considered the tournament as the Zero Hour because any small mistake is disallowed if someone wants to contend the final champion.

Zero Hour: PAN vs SV-CORE

In the final "Zero Hour", the championship match started with the same fixture in the Summer Series. Some participants predicted that another incredible "Sanity" would be once again. What would be happened in the next moment? Everyone seemed not to know that because the final two athletes are under pressure. If someone errors in a key moment, the other one will be the champion as well.

After several deadlocks, PAN finally held the last championship point to win the final champion with a reversible winning of 2-1 set to SV-CORE.

"Thanks for supports from my teammates and my parents, without your encouragements, I will not be able to do a complete physical constructions to win the Final Champions. After this (tournament), I think every participant should do a proper optimization for a better tomorrow." Pan said after the Championship Match.

2011 RBTWGP Final Series: New system brings out new battle formations

Since REFLEC BEAT Limelight by Konami was utilized in Taiwan last December, the "2011 REFLEC BEAT Taiwan Grand Prix" (2011 RBTWGP), officially-approved tournament by Konami Asia in Taiwan, made several changes majorly on rules.

Although the Spring and Summer Series used old system, athletes who got qualified to the Grand Final of the 2011 RBTWGP Final Series have to pay more attentions on changes of systems, song difficulties, and the other unpredictable issues if someone wants to capture the final championship.

As of changes on gaming system and a little overlay schedule to the 2011 Konami Arcade Championship Asia, areas of the "Final Series" were rearranged to six areas including Eastern Taiwan, New Taipei, Taipei-Keelung (Taipei City and Keelung City), Taoyuan-Hsinchu (a.k.a Tao-Chu-Miao), Big Tainan (Tainan City), and Big Kaohsiung (Kaohsiung City).

New system brought out different aftermath on area semi-finals, the grown-up of strengths often made results taken place in the zero-second. Although the battles were often uncertain, but well-skilled experts can still break out the deadlock in the final seconds.

Within two days, the real "Zero Hour" will begin, the BEST ONE will be decided in the Grand Final of the 2011 RBTWGP Final Series. Who can laugh to the end in the "Zero Hour" of the "Final Series"?

2012 Taipei Game Show: Grand Final of the "2011 RBTWGP Annual Final Series" ready to launch

After the "Spring Series" and the "Summer Series" of the "2011 REFLEC BEAT Taiwan Grand Prix" (2011 RBTWGP), this annual tournament is ready for a decisive "Final Series". Before the Area Semi-Finals of the "2011 RBTWGP Annual Final Series", this event chose the 2012 Taipei Game Show in the Taipei World Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall as the best chance to promote this tournament.

Besides of the 2011 RBTWGP promotion by Saint-Fun International, organizer of the 2011 RBTWGP, Microsoft Taiwan also exhibited several Kinect games in main of somatosensory rhythmic games including "Dance Central 2" and "Just Dance 3" to inspire importance of fitness sport.

The 2012 Taipei Game Show is scheduled to be exhibited until February 6, 2012 in the TWTC Nangang, and the Grand Final of the 2011 RBTWGP Annual Final Series will be taken place on February 25, 2012.

More Information

• Show Highlights of Music Games at the 2012 Taipei Game Show

2012 Taipei Game Show features complex gaming themes and topics

Gamer's annual festival is ready to start! Different from the past years, the 2012 Taipei Game Show will be not only moved to the Taipei World Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall, in which the COMPUTEX Taipei and many famous Taipei Trade Shows are located, but also featured varied kinds of topics including web-based games, mobile applications, home gaming consoles, and achievements from academical researches and industries of gaming and digital content in Taiwan.

Meeting with school opening season in February, several major companies prepared several special discount plans and announced newly-published games for visitors. Taipei Computer Association, the show organizer, also announced Inter-Hall Shuttle Bus solution to serve visitors back and forth between the TWTC Nangang (Taipei Game Show) and the TWTC Hall 2 (Taipei International Book Exhibition Comic Animation Hall).

Social Network Innovation: The "I'm MT Sharing Tool" by JiaThis and Beijing Perfect Time Network Technology

Although the GFW (Great Network FireWall) is still a major issue in China, but several social network service provider still tried to make differences on social sharing tool developments. At last October, JiaThis, the biggest social sharing tool portal in China, made a special collaboration with Beijing Perfect Time Network Technology Co., Ltd., developing a special comic-themed social sharing tool with same name website "I'm MT", agent by 178.com.

This collaboration is designed for gaming and comic fans from "World of Warcraft" and its derivation comic work "I'm MT" in China to improve notabilities at gaming and comic communities especially in China.

As of in recent, the JiaThis "I'm MT" Sharing Tool can be jointly customized with the other share services including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr,..., etc.

More Information (All are in Simplified Chinese)

• JiaThis Press Release
• Official JiaThis "I'm MT" Sharing Tool Site
• Official "I'm MT" Site

2012 TIBE: ITASHA-styled vehicles celebrate 20 years' anniversary of the show

If thinking about comic and anime, the Comic Animation Hall of the Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) is the first impression from the fans. Different with the pasts, to celebrate 20 years' anniversary of the show, the TIBE invited local anime research community named "MOE-powered burning ITASHA Culture Association" to exhibit varied kinds of special ITASHA-styled vehicles including topics from popular animation, comic, to game series.

According to the leader from the community, several ITASHA-styled vehicles are professionally pre-designed with colors. As of copyright issue, most of ITASHA-styled vehicles are only visible in Taiwan's some major events including Bahamut Gamer Community Annual Celebration, Comic World Taiwan, or for example, this exhibition. In the ITASHA culture, most of designers and vehicle owners will consider harmfulness of vehicle body and topic popularity to design very unique ITASHA-styled vehicles to promote comic, animation, and gaming culture in Taiwan.

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Taiko no Tatsujin Portable DX named as Bronze Award of Best Console Games in the 2011 Game Star Awards in Taiwan

In the Pre-Show Press Conference of 2012 Taipei Game Show, the Taipei Computer Association announced achievements of the 2011 Game Star Awards in Taiwan.

The Game Star Awards in Taiwan is an annual election by the Taipei Computer Association with online voting institutions. In the 2011 election, console games published from September 1st 2010 to August 31st 2011 are eligible to be nominated in this event.

Although New Taiko no Tatsujin, the latest arcade edition of Taiko no Tatsujin Series, is not imported to Taiwan, the "Taiko no Tatsujin Portable DX" in the PlayStation Portable platform still won the Bronze Award of The Best Console Games in the 2011 Game Star Award in Taiwan as of its popularity.